Feminism in Literature/ Sappho

Although Historians and Critics date the first wave of the Feminism movement to the end of the nineteenth century, Feminist writing started thousands of years before that and hundreds of years BC. The oldest of such writings belong to the great Greek female poet and writer, Sappho. Sappho was born in the island of Lesbos in ancient Greece sometime between 630 and 612 BC. Not much is known or confirmed about her life but she is believed to be an aristocrat leading a good life that made her free to experience and write. She also had her own political activities that sent her to exile in Sicily. Coming from Greece, the land of lyrics, Sappho had her own innovative style and she is believed to have composed the music to be accompanying her poetry while performed on theatre. Her style is very melodic and most of her works deal with love, loss, separation and other romantic issues and even some of her works were homoerotic. This brings us to a very controversial part of Sappho's life and works which is female homosexuality. Sappho's works are famous for their homosexual content and most of her poems are love poems from her to many other females. The word Lesbian that is still used to describe female homosexuals is actually derived from Lesbos, the island where she used to live, but this was not a problem at her time as she was living in the ancient Greek society that honored homosexuality among men and women. Regardless the content, Sappho is considered one of the most famous female poets and although she was born over 2000 years ago, her works are still read and studied. Finally, I leave you with one of her works: I have not had one word from her Frankly I wish I were dead When she left, she wept a great deal; she said to me, "This parting must be endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly." I said, "Go, and be happy but remember (you know well) whom you leave shackled by love "If you forget me, think of our gifts to Aphrodite and all the loveliness that we shared "all the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around your young neck "myrrh poured on your head and on soft mats girls with all that they most wished for beside them "while no voices chanted choruses without ours, no woodlot bloomed in spring without song..."